Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of Earth

Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of Earth

Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of Earth offers a systematic examination of Precambrian cratons and supercontinents. Through detailed maps of drift histories and paleogeography of each continent, this book examines topics related to Earth’s tectonic evolution prior to Pangea, including plate kinematics, orogenic development, and paleoenvironments. Additionally, this book discusses the methodologies used, principally paleomagnetism and tectonostratigraphy, and addresses geophysical topics of mantle dynamics and geodynamo evolution over billions of years. Structured clearly with consistent coverage for Precambrian cratons, this book combines state-of-the-art paleomagnetic and geochronologic data to reconstruct the paleogeography of the Earth in the context of major climatic events such as global glaciations. It is an ideal, up-to-date reference for geoscientists and geographers looking for answers to questions surrounding the tectonic evolution of Earth. Provides robust paleogeographies of Precambrian cratons based on high-quality paleomagnetic and geochronologic data and critically tested by global geological datasets - Includes links to updated databases for the Precambrian such as PALEOMAGIA and the Global Paleomagnetic Database (GPMDB) - Presents full-color maps of the drift histories of each continent as well as their paleogeographies - Discusses key questions regarding continental drift, the supercontinent cycle, and the geomagnetic dipole hypothesis and analyzes palaeography in the context of Earth’s holistic evolution A state-of-the-art resource for understanding the paleogeography of Earth in the context of supercontinent cycles Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of the Earth offers a systematic examination of the cratons of the Precambrian and the supercontinent cycle. Through detailed maps of drift histories and paleogeography of each continent, the book addresses questions about Earth’s evolution, such as whether continental drift took place before Pangea, what was the drift velocity of the ancient continents, whether the continents collided, and whether Earth had supercontinents before Pangea. Additionally, the book will cover the methodologies used, and will apply those methodologies to testing the dipole hypothesis. Structured clearly with consistent coverage for all cratons, Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of the Earth combines state-of-the-art paleomagnetic and radiometric data to reconstruct the paleogeography of the Precambrian Earth in the context of major ancient events, such as global glaciations, and summarize apparent polar wander paths (APWPs) of the continents. It is an ideal, up-to-date reference for geoscientists and geographers looking for answers to questions surrounding the continental evolution of Earth. Lauri J. Pesonen is an Emeritus Professor of solid earth geophysics at Physics Department of University of Helsinki. He is a graduate at the Helsinki University of Technology and obtained PhD in 1978 at the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and has been the president of the Geophysical Society of Finland, and the Chair of Divison III (Paleomagnetism) of IUGG/IAGA during 1993_x0001_97. The IUA AU:1 nominated the asteroid 1979A as “Pesonen” according to his activities in studies of super_x0002_continents and meteorite impacts. He received the Knight Medal of the First Class Finnish Lion in 1995. Lauri is author or coauthor of over 150 peer-reviewed articles. He initiated the Nordic Paleomagnetism Workshops and was a key-person in the developments of the Precambrian (PALEOMAGIA) and Holocene (GEOMAGIA) paleomagnetic databases. Lauri organized the International Supercontinent Symposium in 2012 in Helsinki. He has had academic (teaching and research) positions in Canada, Estonia, Norway, Germany, India, and Colombia. His research topics spread from supercontinents to the Earth’s ancient magnetic field, impact structures, meteorite petrophysics, archeomagnet_x0002_ism, environmental magnetism, and biomagnetism. He has built three paleomagnetism laboratories, the first one at the Geological Survey of Finland, the second at the University of Helsinki, the third in Tarto University, Estonia. His latest interests include constructions of exhibitions of meteorites and impactites at several Finnish museums. Johanna M. Salminen is a Docent at the University of Helsinki and has been leading the research of its Solid Earth Geophysics Laboratory during 2014_x0001_21. Since August 2021, she has been the Director of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Geological Survey of Finland. She earned an MSc in Geophysics (2004) and a PhD in Solid Earth Geophysics (2009) from the University of Helsinki. Her research interests lie in continental reconstructions, Precambrian supercontinents, deep-time evolution of the Earth, Cenozoic magnetostrati_x0002_graphy, environmental magnetism, and biomagnetism. Her profe